S IEM REAP - Despite embassy advice, foreigners are still taking boats to Siem Reap, and taxis and even trains elsewhere.

For eight Western tourists on Nov 8, ignoring that advice might have given them an exciting travelers' tale, but it could have proven a lot more serious.

Fifty passengers, including the eight Westerners, were aboard the Reasmey Angkor when it broke down in the middle of the Tonle Sap for two hours.

Khmer Rouge guerrillas maintain strongholds around the Tonle Sap and it would have been relatively simple for them to kidnap the Westerners. Boats plying the Siem Reap route are notoriously unreliable. In July one carrying 26 Westerners and 23 Cambodians capsized. Many lost all their possessions but luckily no-one was injured or killed.-Moeun Chhean Nariddh